A Texas judge has ruled that DNA evidence probably would not have cleared convicted killer Henry Skinner of the three murders that sent him to death row.

Skinner, 52, was condemned for the 1993 New Year's Eve murders of his live-in girlfriend Twila Busby and her two adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby. Skinner, a verbally combative paralegal whose case gained international attention in anti-death penalty circles, consistently argued he had been incapacitated by alcohol and codeine when the killings occurred.

Skinner twice received last-minute stays of executions as his lawyers sought to obtain testing of dozens of pieces of crime scene evidence not previously tested. Among them were a bloody knife and bloodstains found throughout the victims' Pampa home.

A windbreaker that Skinner's lawyers contended might have been worn by the killer disappeared from police custody and was not subjected to DNA testing. Earlier this year, Skinner's legal team argued to Pampa state District Judge Steven Emmert that the killings had been committed by Twila Busby's uncle, who reportedly accosted her at a party shortly before her death.

In a one-page ruling, Emmert ruled that it was "reasonably probable" that the new DNA test results would not have led to acquittal if they had been presented at Skinner's trial.